| The Way of Victory |
Chapter 5 |
Page 6 |
“Her husband is known in the gates.” A great many public men who have risen to eminence and power have not hesitated to confess that they owed it all to their wives. An inefficient, indolent, thriftless, gad-about woman will never help her husband’s promotion; on the other hand she will hinder his advancement, will prove a heavy drag, and will probably make his life a failure. It is no secret that there are wives of this kind. More men than we probably think are kept down by their wives. The practical lessons are important. Girls and young women should train themselves to efficiency, earnestness, thrift, helpfulness, strength of character, so that if they marry they will make such wives as the woman of this lesson. And boys and young men, in forming their ideas of the woman that will make a good wife, must not be so foolishly blind as to overlook what is taught here about the kind of woman whose husband becomes honoured among men. They must remember that their own future success as men will depend very largely upon the kind of wife they choose.
The law of kindness is on the tongue of the excellent woman. She has trained her speech to gentle tones. A woman’s voice is a wonderful revealer of her character. Every young girl should train herself to speak softly and kindly. One who has not done this in early life will not be able suddenly to adopt “the law of kindness” when she sets up her own home. Little girls should begin to speak softly when they are playing, or at school and in their home. Nothing is more beautiful in a woman than calmness and quietness in manner, showing itself in well-controlled speech. Bad temper is a great blot on a woman. A wife and mother who is always scolding, scolding, scolding not only mars the beauty of her own life but hurts the lives and scars and spoils the characters of her children, and makes her home an unhappy place for her household. Wonderful is this law of kindness. In a mother in her home its influence is heavenlike. Every girl and young woman should take this “law” into her life at once, and train her heart and voice to the sweetest kindness.
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